Claude Albert Edwards 1916 - 2010

Peacefully on Sunday May 16th, 2010 at the Ottawa Hospital Civic Campus at the age of 94. He is survived by his son Robert Edwards and wife Pamela, grandchildren Ian and Victoria, as well as many relatives and friends throughout the world. Born and educated in Toronto, he taught school at the Golden Rose Mine in Northern Ontario before serving in the RCAF in Canada, the United Kingdom and Holland during WWII. After the war he joined the Department of Veterans Affairs. Subsequently he became President of the Civil Service Federation, then founding President of the Public Service Alliance of Canada. Claude also served as a member or chaired many boards and councils, the longest service as a member and chairman of the Board of Governors of Carleton University from 1971 to 1990. His last official role was as National President of the Federal Superannuates National Association from 1989 to 1998. He retired to Gananoque, near his beloved cottage on Lost Bay. While in Gananoque he supported the establishment of the Lost Bay Nature Conservancy. For his tireless work, he was named an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1976. In 1997 Carleton presented Claude with a Founders Award for his outstanding contribution to the advancement of the University and in 2001 a Honourary Doctor of Laws was conferred on him by Carleton University. He was a tower of strength and support for his family, friends and associates. He will be missed.

STOP CONTRACTING OUT OUR CALL CENTERS
SPECIAL MEETING

WHEN : Tuesday, June 15th 2010

WHAT TIME : One session at 17 PM and a second session at 19 PM (In order to give the opportunity to all employees to be attending)

WHERE : Centurion Conference &Event Center,
170 Colonnade Road South in the Empress Hall

Come and find out what your Union has done so far to fight the contracting out of your call center since the March 30th announcement by CPC.

Come to learn what YOU can do to help your Union save jobs in Canada and what are your rights in the actual situation.

Guess speakers: John Sullivan -PSAC
Maria Fitzpatrick – PSAC regional VP for the NCR

Food and beverages will be provided at both meetings.

____________________________________________________________________

Local Meeting Local 70180

WHAT : Special General Meeting of Local 70180 (UPCE)

WHEN : Wednesday June 9th at 17 h 30

WHERE : 2415 Holly Lane, Suite 201 F (address of Local 70180)

WHY : To vote on the recommendation of the Disciplinary Committee

The meeting should not last more than 30 minutes, the time it will take to take the vote.

QUOI : Assemblée générale spéciale du Local 70180 (SEPC)

QUAND: Le mercredi 9 juin à 17 h 30

OÙ : Au 2415 Holly Lane, bureau 201 F (adresse de notre Local)

POURQUOI : Afin de voter sur la recommandation du Comité de discipline

La rencontre ne devrait pas prendre plus de 30 minutes, le temps de tenir le vote.

Bulletin Mixup

May 13, 2010

Please note that a draft bulletin was sent out by mistake. The official version of the bulletin will be sent out soon. Thank you for your patience and your understanding.

Veuillez prendre note qu'une ébauche de bulletin a été envoyée par erreur. La version officielle du bulletin sera envoyée sous peu. Merci de votre patience et de votre compréhension.

_____________________________________

Canada Post to privatize 300 contact centre jobs across Canada

Ottawa—The Public Service Alliance of Canada, the largest federal public service union in the country, will be taking swift action to prevent Canada Post from privatizing an important part of its operations. Yesterday, the crown corporation announced that it would outsource its contact centres and the National Philatelic Centre, resulting in the elimination of more than 300 jobs across the country.

Affected locations include:

• Edmonton
• Ottawa
• Winnipeg
• Antigonish
• Fredericton

“This obsession with privatization will badly damage the quality of the Canadian postal service as well as the communities it serves,” said Robyn Benson, the PSAC Regional Executive Vice-President for the Prairies. “Many regions in the country will lose local contact with Canada Post as well as jobs that are important for the local economy,” she added.

For Benson, the privatization of Canada Post’s answering services also raises the question of protection of confidential information provided by Canadians.

“I’m not sure that Canadians are ready to see their postal service become an information collection agency for the American government,’ Benson said. “If an American company answers calls for Canada Post, then the U.S. Patriot Act gives the government access to all information the company collects. Is that what Canadians want?”

Richard Deslauriers, the National President of PSAC component, the Union of Postal and Communications Employees (UPCE) said this type of economic reasoning will bring Canada Post closer to a complete privatization.

“The privatization of Canada Post has always been an objective of the current management and the conservative federal government,” Deslauriers said. “The slippery slope of partial privatization of services will end up with Canada Post in the hands of private companies and Canadians will be deprived of a service they have relied on for decades”.

The PSAC represents more than 165,000 members across the country including 2,000 at Canada Post

As a union, UPCE’s first priority is to protect the standard of living and job security of its members. In 2010 and beyond, that means we must work to shape a viable future for the Postal Service and the membership of UPCE, helping to decide how it will thrive and serve the Canadian people.

There has been a major debate going on for quite some time regarding the future of Canada Post. Should we deregulate and/or privatize the Postal System in Canada? Other countries have made the mistake of privatizing their postal system and in most cases it was rather devastating to the public and the people of that country.

The Harper Government, the Board of Directors and the CEO of Canada Post continue to push their right wing agenda towards the deregulation and privatization of your public post office. It is even suggested that this will help create more jobs and better profits for the progress of the modern post. UPCE and other postal unions around the world know this is not the case.

Which workers do they speak about? The fact is the workers and the jobs they speak about are actually low paying non-union jobs and certainly won’t be UPCE jobs. The profits they speak of will only go to increase their already high salaries and inflated bonuses. This money will never make it to the workers. It rarely does.

Ironically, a few decades ago, the IPS report said CEOs usually took home about 30 or 40 times that of a worker, but, in 2008, top executives on average scooped up a whopping 319 times more than the average U.S. worker.

While these statistics are from the U.S., they are similar and close to the reality of Corporate Canada. We should ask ourselves, does it make sense in this global recession that the average UPCE worker makes approximately $48,000 a year with a potential of making a 4% bonus (CTI) and another 3% on (IPI) for a potential of 7%, while the CEO of Canada Post is making in bonuses alone a hundred thousand more than the average workers of Canada Post Corporation.

The salary of Ms Green, according to an article in the Calgary Sun published February 15, 2010, Canada Post Corporation would only disclose a salary range ($416,200 to $489,700) and a bonus range (a rate of up to 33%) meaning a maximum bonus of $161, 601. WOW, that’s a sweet deal in a time of global recession.

I am sure I do not need to remind everyone what happened during our negotiations of 2008. We were told that Canada Post Corporation was going broke and they needed some serious changes in order to make their modern post a success. The sad part was when it came time to finding a solution to their so-called economic situation at Canada Post, they imposed cuts and roll-backs on us by taking away our sick leave, family-related leave and gave us a lower than cost-of-living economic salary increase.

They will use all and any excuse to protect their elite, fat cat status and stop at nothing to take more money out of workers’ pockets. Their giant pay packets in my view are unethical and unsustainable, and that the fixing of CEO pay was a “racket”.

As the global economy makes a slow recovery after the worst recession since the Great Depression, decision makers should put the economy on a sustainable footing. The important lesson to be learned is that working people bailed out the financial system and that has enabled the recovery to take place. Now, we expect a shift from market fundamentalism to a new era of social responsibility on everything ranging from business values to CEO pay.

They often remind us of the skyrocketing cost of pensions, health care and benefits to a level that Canada Post claims they cannot sustain in this global economic meltdown. Perhaps, a serious pay review for the 12th floor at Canada Post might be in order to help them pay for these rising costs.

Unfortunately, their solution to fix the rising cost of pensions and benefits is to increase the cost and put the brunt of it on the workers’ backs or they will simply take it away and make the changes to fit their right wing agenda. Yet, neither the Board of Directors nor the CEO of Canada Post have made any cuts to their already high salaries or inflated bonuses. I am sure they are not affected by the so-called financial situation at Canada Post.

The truth is, until ALL the members of UPCE at Canada Post have had enough and start taking action to stop the insanity of losing jobs and not receiving our fair share of the pie, Canada Post will continue to abuse us, financially and mentally, as they have in the past.

We must stand united and strong because to do otherwise will be the last thing we do.

UPCE/PSAC has worked shoulder to shoulder with the CLC and other unions (including CUPW and UNI Global Union) to fight for the future of Canada Post.

What are you doing to protect your jobs, work and Canada Post?

We must continue to work together to put political pressure on our politicians to show them the benefit of keeping Canada Post a public company, We know the benefit because we live it every day in large major centers or in rural areas. We are the workers that know what the postal office needs and what the public want for service from their public Post Office.

A win on this front in our battle to secure the future for UPCE and the future of Canada Post is crucial to maintain our working lives.

Finding a brighter future!

In my next newsletter, I’ll touch upon the future of UPCE and what needs to be done to continue supporting and properly representing the membership….

Stay Tuned…

Richard L. Des Lauriers
National President

National President Richard L. Des Lauriers

Richard L. Des Lauriers is the National President for the Union of Postal Communications Employees, he was elected on October 25, 2005 at the union's thirteen Triennial National Convention in Halifax. He had been the union's Ontario Regional Vice-President since 2002.

As the National President, Richard is the union's chief executive officer, overseeing the day-to-day affairs of the union. He is responsible for the union's communications and political action strategy, for guiding UPCE’s policy reform work and for coordinating the union's position on these policies that have a significant impact on UPCE members.

As National President, he is vested with the authority to deal with regional complaints and jurisdictional issues. He also has overall responsibility for the administration of the UPCE's regions and locals Prior to his election to the UPCE National Executive as Ontario Regional Vice President in 2002, Richard was Local President of local 70180, from 2000 to 2002. A UPCE and PSAC activist since 1991 when he joined Canada Post Corporation as a Customer Service Representative in the Ottawa Contact Centre, Richard has held a variety of union positions in his Local.

Richard is currently the PSAC Alternate National Executive Vice-President. Richard is also an activist in the broader global labour movement. He is alternate on the Union Network International (UNI) World Executive board and has served on the PSAC NCR Council and Executive board for three years as well as several other PSAC committees.

Reports to the National Executive

December 2007
September 2006
March 2006

Atlantic Vice-President Mike Moeller

Mike Moeller is the UPCE’s Regional Vice-President for the Atlantic. In January 1995, he was elected by the membership to fill the vacant position of UPCE Regional Director . He was reelected to that position at the Triennial Convention of 1996, 1999, 2002 and 2005. In 2005, his title was changed to Regional Vice-President.

Prior to his election in 1995, he was President of Local 80823 in Antigonish. He has been involved in the union for many years, starting as a Shop Steward in 1985.

He is part of the UPCE National Executive and responsible for the Atlantic Region. Mike is also on the PSAC/UPCE/CPC National Pension Plan Committee.

Reports to the National Executive

April 2008
December 2007
September 2006
March 2006

Quebec Vice-President Ginette Chartrand

Reports to the National Executive

December 2007
September 2006
March 2006

Ontario Vice-President Kelly Steele

Reports to the National Executive

April 2008
December 2007
September 2006
March 2006

Western Vice-President Janet I. May

Janet May is the UPCE's Regional Vice-President for the Western Region. She was elected to the position at the Triennial Convention in 2002 and then again in 2005.
Prior to her election in 2002, she was President of Local 50100 for Manitoba and Northwest Ontario. She also has been at the bargaining table in 2001/2002 for the Main Negotiations for the CPC/PSAC contract and also for the Job Evaluation Plan Negotiations in 2002.
She is part of the UPCE National Executive and responsible for the Western Region, which has 8 locals. Janet is also on the PSAC/UPCE/CPC National Benefits Committee, the Steering Committee of the UPCE/CPC Service Expansion and Innovation Committee and the internal UPCE Finance Committee.

Reports to the National Executive

April 2008
December 2007
September 2006
March 2006

April, 2008 - National Executive Minutes
December 2007 - National Executive Minutes
September 09, 2006 - National Executive Minutes
March, 2006 - National Executive Minutes

The advent of collective bargaining in the Public Service has placed an onus both on the Alliance and on its components. It has forcefully been impressed upon the Officers of both the Alliance and the Components that the responsibility for carrying out the representation of organized public servants in bargaining on their behalf with the employer and the ensuing provision deriving from agreements or arbitral awards has to be a shared responsibility. On the one hand, the Alliance provides research technical assistance to bargaining committees and negotiating teams, general representations regarding servicewide matters, fringe benefits, and working conditions demands for each bargaining group certified; arrange for the acceptance, by the membership of bargaining positions and of proposed agreements; administer the ensuing collective agreements, handle all grievances and continue to make representations on behalf of the membership with Canada Post Corporation officials and Purolator Courier Ltd.

It is important to remember that our ByLaws reflect the wishes of our members as to
a structure considered best suited to serve them, and at the same time conform to the Constitution of the Public Service Alliance of Canada.

The Constitution of the Alliance may change and our own needs may change so our
ByLaws must be regarded as a "living" rather than "static" thing, and we must be prepared to change and continue to strive for improvement as circumstances warrant.

Download the By-laws and Regulations

Union of Postal Communications Employees
701-233 Gilmour Street
Ottawa, ON, K2P 0P1
Tel:(613) 560- 4342
fax: (613) 594-3849
sepc-upce@psac.com

Richard L. Des Lauriers
National President
Tel: (613) 560-4342 Ext 5630
fax: (613) 594-3849
Richard L. Des Lauriers

Lyne Cabana
Administrative Assistant
Tel: (613) 560-4342 Ext 5634
fax: (613) 594-3849
Lyne Cabana

Monique Trahan
Labour Relations Advisor
Tel: (613) 560-4342 Ext 5642
fax: (613) 594-3849
Monique Trahan

Chantal Campeau
Accounts Clerk
Tel: (613) 560-4342 Ext 5532
fax: (613) 594-3849
Chantal Campeau

Richard L. DesLauriers
National President
Tel: 613 560-4342 Ext 5630
fax: 613 594-3849
Richard L. DesLauriers

Ginette Chartrand
Quebec Vice President
Tel: (514) 231-4041
Ginette Chartrand

Mike Moeller
Atlantic Vice President
Tel: 902 863-9228
Mike Moeller

Janet May
Western Vice-President
Tel: (204) 254-5487
Fax: (204) 254-5587
janimay@mts.net

Kelly Steele
Ontario Vice-president
Tel: (519) 476-9977
Fax: (519) 285-3947
Steele Kelly

On March 1, 1967, the Post Office Component, whose origin goes back to the convention meeting of the Railway Mail Clerks in Ottawa in November 1966, joined the Public Service Alliance of Canada. This makes the component and the PSAC the successors to the Canadian Railway Mail Clerks Federation founded in 1889 and the oldest union at Canada Post.

At the Postal Communications Component convention in Halifax in August 1975, the delegates voted unanimously to change the name of their component to the Union of Postal Communications Employees (UPCE).